Here we go again. We’re getting meta with readings by the great Christopher Walken. It all starts with the actor appearing on a 1993 broadcast of the British TV series “Saturday Zoo” hosted by Jonathan Ross, and he’s reading and riffing on the beloved fairy tale, The Story of the Three Little Pigs. The potentially terrifying story is uncharacteristically jolly. Walken goes for laughs, not chills. The same can’t be said for the next tale.
We’re not clear on the backstory of this reading. But we do know Walken is reading Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, The Raven, and stays true to the original text published in 1845. The Raven made Poe famous then, and it remains influential today — so much so they named a football team after the poem. How many other sports teams can make such a claim?
And then we come full circle again. Almost 16 years after Walken’s reading of The Three Little Pigs, the star returned to another show hosted by Jonathan Ross (BBC’s Friday Night) and served up a second comic reading. This time it’s “Poker Face” by the inescapable Lady Gaga.
Walken reading Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak? If only, if only …..
The game “walkenthroughs” are hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL576D1D91024C701C